“Wicked” has at all times been insanely widespread. However like Glinda, whom all of the cool youngsters wish to hang around with however don’t essentially respect, the musical has been extra of a fan favourite than a critics’ darling.
John M. Chu’s blockbuster movie has introduced “Wicked”-mania to a brand new stratosphere. For some time, it appeared as if the celebrities of the film, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, had conquered not solely the film musical field workplace jinx but in addition all of social media.
The “Wicked” frenzy reveals no indicators of letting up. On the Hollywood Pantages final Thursday, the place the musical returned for its sixth run in L.A., there was a great deal of cosplaying amongst attendees. I’m not speaking about tweens, who’ve lengthy been a core repeat viewers, however adults decked in frilly pink or ominous inexperienced, relying on whether or not they had been Group Glinda or Group Elphaba.
There’s no evaluating the standard of the performances on the Pantages with the superior star energy of the film. Erivo, a musical theater divinity, incarnated Elphaba from the within out whereas delivering the facility ballads with as a lot feeling as vocal majesty.
The stage musical’s one benefit over the movie is that it covers the entire story as set out within the guide Winnie Holzman tailored from Gregory Maguire’s novel, which is itself a prequel to L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” conceived as an Orwellian parable. The movie brings us to the top of the musical’s first act. A second movie, popping out subsequent 12 months, will full the story.
Ariana Grande, left, and Cynthia Erivo within the film “Wicked: Part I.”
(Giles Keyte / Common Footage)
The 2-hour, 40-minute operating time of Half 1 threw into reduction the musical’s weaknesses. I needed the rating by Stephen Schwartz to be worthy of Erivo’s magnificence. Nobody may do extra with “I’m Not That Girl” or “Defying Gravity,” Elphaba’s seismic Act I numbers, however I used to be extra moved by Erivo’s virtuosity than by Schwartz’s songwriting ability.
Grande matched her co-star’s vocal prowess, however her numbers are likely to replicate her character’s superficiality. “Popular,” which she sings earlier than she shortens her title from Galinda to Glinda, is a delight that Grande savors like a giant, scrumptious wad of pink bubblegum.
Glinda’s shtick had me laughing reflexively however emptily. I used to be by no means genuinely tickled. The visible splendor of the spoiled brat’s faculty trousseau actually casts a cinematic spell. Think about if Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde” had gained admission to Hogwarts Faculty of Witchcraft and Wizardry as an alternative of Harvard Legislation Faculty and also you’ll have approximation of the spectacular therapy. Grande makes the connection that kinds between Glinda and Elphaba real, however her character is extra one-note than Erivo’s. She leans into the joke, however the enjoyable is ephemeral.
Re-encountering the stage musical after seeing the movie made me recognize much more the brilliance of Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the function of Glinda on Broadway along with her signature magic, a mix of glittering vivacity, operatic singing and Judy Holliday-esque clowning. Chenoweth made the unique display screen Glinda of “The Wizard of Oz” look like a bland afterthought.
“Wicked” initially starred Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, pictured performing on the 2004 Tony Awards.
(Frank Micelotta / Getty Photos)
I used to be on the Tony Awards the 12 months that “ “Avenue Q” grabbed the night time’s greatest musical prize out from beneath “Wicked’s” anticipated victory march. The race, which pitted a overtly off-color indie-spirited musical with puppets in opposition to a business juggernaut from Oz, culminated in a collective gasp when the envelope was learn. However although there was audible shock, the end result was hardly a whole shock.
The critiques for “Wicked,” whereas glowing for the lead performers, had been decidedly combined. Field workplace glory didn’t override the reservation sufficient Tony voters clearly had about its overwrought anthems, ungainly storytelling and heavy-handed politics.
Idina Menzel gained the Tony Award that 12 months for her efficiency as Elphaba, pulling off a dramatic upset in opposition to Chenoweth. I don’t usually attend the Tony Awards, however I bear in mind being extra startled by this win than “Avenue Q’s.”
Menzel had the extra complicated function and so forth one degree it made good sense. However Chenoweth was Broadway royalty. And whereas Menzel was hardly a newcomer (she had obtained a Tony nomination for her efficiency in “Rent”), she was up in opposition to one of many Nice White Approach’s brightest lights.
I don’t suppose I totally appreciated how a lot Chenoweth added to the function till I noticed others attempt to step into her character’s floating bubble. Megan Hilty made a pleasant impression, starring reverse Eden Espinosa’s affecting Elphaba, after I reviewed “Wicked” on the Pantages in 2007. However Chenoweth patented this fizzy, morally difficult replace of Glinda the Good — one of many causes it was karmically so satisfying to see Menzel and Chenoweth reunited within the movie for a command efficiency in Oz.
The forged within the present touring iteration provides off a considerably tertiary impression. My companion thought Susan Hilferty’s costumes had been essentially the most praiseworthy characteristic of the manufacturing. He had a degree.
Austen Danielle Bohmer’s Glinda and Lauren Samuels’ Elphaba are spectacular singers. And each neatly fulfill the outlines of their characters. However the sense of a retread is tough to shake.
There’s a tentativeness to Bohmer’s comedian outlandishness. (Grande revels extra naturally within the amusing shallowness.) Glinda’s hair flips and knee-jerk narcissism lack the mandatory conviction.
Samuels has no hassle summoning the energy for Elphaba’s energy ballads. She additionally finds the wonder in her much less vociferous numbers. However the emotional arc of the character is much less forcefully conveyed exterior of the music.
Samuels’ Elphaba begins on an angrier observe than Erivo adopts within the movie. She arrives at Shiz College because the caretaker of her sister, Nessarose (Erica Ito), who makes use of a wheelchair. Instantly ostracized by the scholars for her inexperienced pigmentation, Elphaba explodes with fury when her sister is abruptly faraway from her care. However the stage musical doesn’t have a lot time to develop the internal lifetime of the character. Samuels’ explosion appears extra tied to the plot than to the function’s psychology.
The film’s largest enchancment is in the best way it deepens Elphaba’s alienation. Casting a Black actor who occurs to even be queer provides a complete different dimension to the character’s lived expertise of prejudice. As Erivo demonstrated in her blazing Tony-winning efficiency as Celia within the Broadway revival of the musical “The Color Purple,” she has entry to such profound depths of her soul when performing that singing and performing turn out to be one.
I discovered Jonathan Bailey’s efficiency as Fiyero, Glinda’s golden boy love curiosity who falls unexpectedly for Elphaba, to be self-conscious. However the gravity of Erivo’s integrity as Elphaba is irresistible. How may Fiyero not succumb to her internal radiance?
The romance between Xavier McKinnon’s Fiyero and Samuels’ Elphaba, against this, requires a sure suspension of disbelief. One accedes to the story as one succumbs to a fairy story. Reality has little to do with it.
Neither the stage manufacturing nor the musical can do a lot with the melodramatic Madame Morrible, the headmistress at Shiz who turns into a key participant within the Great Wizard of Ozs fascist machinations. However at the least the movie will get some wonderful eccentric villainy from Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard.
The particular results on the Pantages lack cinematic sweep. I may have executed with rather less fog within the opening quantity, however watching performers hoisted into the air is at all times a thrill, even when the ropes are evident.
“Wicked,” on the stage or on the display screen, is in the end extra of a phenomenon than an important musical. I’ve by no means as soon as listened to the forged recording and nonetheless don’t have any want to take action. The songs are as a lot a product of the present because the costumes — not something I’d prefer to strive on at residence. Maguire’s novel, which I learn when the musical first got here out, is touted by mates I maintain in excessive regard. However the musical’s politics are as unsubtle as every other side of this lumbering present.
The success of “Wicked” is hardly a thriller, however its attraction isn’t purely creative. The creators deserve reward for the efficiency of their brew, however business forces have helped this musical defy gravity.
‘Wicked’
The place: Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., L.A.When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and eight p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays; test for schedule variations
Data: BroadwayInHollywood.comRunning time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (one intermission)